It is being reported that Sam Burgess is to switch codes and play for Bath and England next year in time for the World Cup.

rlhttps://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/article-2552634/England-grab-league-superstar-Sam-Burgess-fast-track-World-Cup-plans.htmlrl

Allegedly to play in the centres - alongside Joel Tomkins?
Or Eastmond, or Burrell - 2 others with league backgrounds - less so in Burrell's case?
I wouldn't blame Burgess for one moment if he took the money & defected.
His talent deserves exposure on the biggest stage & sadly that is Rugby Union.

I agree. He would be devastating in either centre position but most likely inside centre. Good ambition from the RU.

Bigger stage, maybe, but I'd be very surprised if any of the current England RU team earn as much on and off field as Burgess does in Sydney.

If he can leverage himself into being an SBW-style cross-code superstar, then, yes, his earning potential would go through the roof, but that's a big gamble because 1) Good as he is, his skillset is different to SBW's, 2) He's not going to be playing for Rugby Union's best, most high-profile international team.

Seems wrong to me. It's a waste of his talents anyway because he's 100% got an RL forward's skillset, but his main attributes of powerfull ball-running, punishing defence and extreme durability would make him a flanker not an inside centre, who nowadays is more of a second stand-off in the Eastmond mould.

This doesn't seem to be anything more than conjecture right now.

Burgess would play centre in RU, SBW style, but it's not a great match.

This would be a huge loss for RL imo he should be the England/GB skipper now.
If he does switch to RU though i definately see him more as a 6,7 or 8 it would be a big coup for the RFU all the same.

If they don't make it happen until the end of this current season then it'll be too late. Both Jason Robinson and SBW were playing RU for around 3 years before the World Cup they took part in. Even with Burgess' talent, to expect him to go straight into a World Cup standard RU player in a single season is unrealistic.

For me its a sad indictment of Rugby Union, imagine if the boot was on the other foot, we would be up in arms if we had signed a Rugby Union forward to play centre for our national side.

I was under the impression that the RFU weren't going to bankroll this sort of move anymore.

Moreover, I don't see a big payoff for them. He's a phenomenal athlete and he'll do well enough, but he's almost perfectly designed to be an RL forward. He isn't going to be significantly better at centre than is already there and RU's back row is a hugely specialised department with skills that he doesn't have. He could learn them, but not by the world cup, and there are no guarantees.

If he's being offered a monumental stack of cash he should take it I suppose, but I don't see it working in the long term.

Down here it's well known that Burgess for all his talent is not on big bucks. I see it as leverage to be on Inglis, Smith, Thurston money.

On a similar topic. I recon we will see a return to better NRL players moving to SL as the pound strengthens against the Dollar. Maybe another reason Burgess is looking for a better deal, probably from Souths.

It would be gutting if he saved the fraud Lancaster's Job.

Expect to see Luke back in SL very shortly - the only reason he got an invite to Oz in the first place was to keep his bro company.

The same could be said for Tom as well. Both Luke and Tom will undoubtedly be on bigger money than they would have got anywhere else. If Sam leaves then he'll have left Souths with one very good brother and two average ones earning too much (although Tom could improve a lot). Sam leaving Souths would also diminish "brand Burgess" significantly - and therefore the future earnings of the lesser brothers outside of the game.

Regardless of how much "compensation" Souths get, players as good as Burgess are very rare. For England RL Sam Burgess is literally irreplaceable. Sam has played along with the whole "living the dream" alongside his brothers, and for him to walk away from that would show it was always a crock.

Fair play to Burgess if he goes, more money & more recognition but to me it does scream desperation from RFU in doing this for their big 2015 showpiece

Could blow up in Englands face here